NaBloWriMo Day 9 - Sea Life in the Fast Lane

Today's home-school field trip took us to the SEA LIFE® Minnesota Aquarium at Mall of America® ...actually, darling husband took us to the aquarium for our field trip.  Just before reaching our destination, however, we had a blowout.  Limping in to the parking spot, we left the car, flat tire and all, to be dealt with later.  We had a Behind-the-Scenes tour booked that we didn't want miss; and with more than 10,000 sea creatures, including sharks, sea turtles, rays, jellyfish, and seahorses, we wanted to get our underwater day underway.

The exhibits were colorful and interesting with several fun facts throughout and lots of opportunities for photo ops.  Even though it's an additional charge, I highly recommend the Behind-the-Scenes guided tour which took us up on deck above the tunnel system where we saw animals that are currently off-exhibit. One particular creature I could relate to was the blow fish or puffer fish.  We learned some back stories on some of the sea creatures--like Seymour the sea turtle who had his shell cracked in a boat vs. turtle accident, and another turtle named Amelio who had previously been named Amelia.  We got to see the laboratory where they do different tests to maintain the 1.3 million gallons of water that make up the aquarium. We also got to tour the Food Prep Kitchen to see what they feed the creatures in order to keep them healthy and strong. 

To keep the theme of the day going, we dined at Bubba Gump Shrimp for a late lunch...I know what you're thinking, but the fish and shrimp were quite tasty and we were okay with that.

We then headed back to the parking lot for the life skill lesson of changing a flat tire on the car:  

Step One:  Tear out chintzy tag board holding spare tire and tools from the trunk.  
Step Two:  Learn new swear words as Dad exclaims over how much he hates this particular kind of tire jack stand...frickin' jack!
Step Three:  Learn more swear words as the lug nuts won't immediately budge.  
Step Four:  kick the tire and swear some more when all the lug nuts are removed but the tire won't come off.  
Step Five:  Call for roadside assistance.  
Step Six:  Get so mad when roadside assistance tells you they will charge $115 to come out with a sledge hammer to remove the tire, that you kick it really hard and it pops off.  
Step Seven:  Hang up on over-priced roadside assistance, put on spare, throw everything in the trunk, and get the heck out of the parking lot where several people have come and gone and not one person asked if we needed any help.

What a day!  Field trips take a lot out of me!